picture books

About Me

I fell in love with words as a young child, through stories, poems, and songs. Once I learned to read, I spent almost all of my free time with a book in my hands.

My favorite spot to read was lying upside down in our blue wing-backed chair. My mother would chase me out of the house: “Stop reading! Go outside! Get some fresh air!” So I set up a reading nook in our rock garden, underneath the elephant ears. But there were too many bugs. So I found a hiding spot indoors and kept reading.

My very first poem was published when I was nine. My brother and I wrote a little ditty called “Chocolate Pudding.” Here’s the only stanza I remember:

Chocolate pudding in my nose.

Chocolate pudding between my toes.

Chocolate pudding in the air.

Chocolate pudding everywhere!

Though I wrote creatively through high school, in college I switched to academic writing. And I went at it with gusto. After receiving an MA in English Literature, I taught college writing for five years. In 2014, I earned a PhD in Renaissance Literature. (See more about my scholarship here.) I served as an editorial assistant at English Literary Renaissance for two years, assisting with copyediting and proofreading.

More recently, I’ve studied picture book writing with Dashka Slater. I’m working toward a Copyediting Certificate through UCBerkeley Extension.

Most days, you’ll find me coming up with picture book ideas on a hike, or thinking about revising while I knit. I also write and revise my own work and edit other people’s work.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area with my husband, our two children, two bunnies, a gecko, and a fish.